[Ian Bailey]

Although I’ve heard good things about the keyer in FCPX and Motion 5, I’m in no doubt that you should be choosing After Effects. As well as a fantastic colour keyer, you also need filters that can separate and manipulate colour channels. These didn’t exist in Motion 4 and the word is that Motion 5 hasn’t changed in that respect.

I too would highly recommend the Steve Wright, Ron Brinkmann and Mark Christiansen books. This training material is also spectacular:

https://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/vfx_index.html

[Ian Bailey]

Hi David,

I’m personally VERY excited by Blender. This is a fully featured 3D modelling and animation app that’s completely free: https://www.blender.org/

There’s a forum for it right here on the COW. Too early to tell if there will be any integration with FCP X or Motion 5, but there are scripts for sending Blender layers to After Effects.

It has very basic video editing (no jokes please!) and a decent node-based compositor. There’s a vibrant community and a number of third party manuals.

Ian

[Ian Bailey]

I’ve taken the opportunity to express my concerns on the feedback page. A most cathartic experience!

[Ian Bailey]

Initially I was positive about FCP X and could understand why Apple was moving in that direction. However, when so many useful and easy to use features from FCP, STP and Color have been lost, it’s time to be polite but firm: https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html